


Small Comforts

by stc2192



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, In this house, Kid Peter Parker, Nightmares, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, no beta we die like men, we take cannon and beat it with a wrench
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 19:05:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19179523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stc2192/pseuds/stc2192
Summary: Tony is self-conscious about the arc reactor in his chest, but learns to love it with the help of his son Peter.





	Small Comforts

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really new at this, so I apologize. This was just an idea I had that I couldn't get out of my head. Enjoy.
> 
> I do not own these characters.

1:45 am finds Tony in his bathroom staring at himself in the mirror. He notes the purple bags under his eyes, the wrinkles on his face, and the 5 o’clock shadow starting to form on his face. Peter had been put to bed a few hours ago, and Tony is now able to take a few minutes for himself for the first time since he started his day. Once Tony is done inspecting his face, his eyes move down to the arc reactor in his chest. Tony cringed. He has been back from Afghanistan for about 3 months now, and He doesn’t think he will ever get used to the newest addition on his chest. 

 

He hates it.

 

It is a constant reminder of all of the trauma he endured, all of the betrayal. Obie’s betrayal came out of nowhere, hit him like a ton of bricks, and sometimes it still feels like he still can’t catch his breath from that one. It had been hard to explain to Peter, too, why Daddy all of a sudden had a piece of metal in his chest. He tried to explain it to the 5-year-old as best he could.   
  
“Sir,” Jarvis interrupts his train of thought, “sorry to disturb you, but it seems that Peter is in distress.”  
  
Tony, now shaken out of his stupor, glances at the clock. 2:35 am. He zoned out longer than he thought. It had only felt like a few minutes.

  
Maybe he should talk to someone about that. 

 

He makes way for Peters room, hoping to calm down his son. Tony’s 3-month disappearance in Afghanistan had, not surprisingly, affected Peter about just as much as Tony. Peter, being only 5 years old, hadn’t quite grasped why Tony had been gone for so long. Nightmares for Peter had become a regular occurrence at first, but now he had gotten better as time had passed. It had been a while since his last nightmare.  
  
“Pete?” Tony says as he opens the door, and he can hear Peter sniffling. He heads towards the bed and puts his arms around his son, and Peter clutches at his shirt with a surprising amount of strength. This one must have been really bad.  
  
Tony reaches up and starts rubbing Peters back in soothing circles. “What's wrong bud?” He says. Peter looks up at him with those big brown watery eyes that are now red-rimmed, and Tony’s heart breaks. “I had that dream again.” And yeah. It was bad.

You see, Peter had nightmares, but more often then not it was the _same_ nightmare: Peter, surrounded by everyone he knew.

 Except Tony.   
  
Peter would search and search, asking everyone around they knew where his Daddy was, but they would just stare at him.  
  
Peter hadn’t had that nightmare in a while, so it frightened Tony a little to see it make an appearance again.

 

“Oh Peter” Tony said, continuing to rub comforting circles around his kids back.  


“I’m right here, and I’m not going to leave you.”  
  
Peter just responded by clutching Tony’s shirt even harder, if that were possible, and lifted one of his tiny hands and placed it over the arc reactor, the warm, blue glow lighting up his face, feeling the hum of the metal device, the hum reassuring and meaning that his Dad’s heart was working.

  
Tony had noticed that Peter had started doing that recently whenever Tony came to comfort him but hadn’t quite figured out what it meant.  
  
Now it _clicked.  
_For a genius, he sure can be an idiot sometimes.

  
He had hated the arc reactor so much, he didn’t consider the fact that he might be the only one that did. He realized Peter _loved_ it. It comforted him in ways that it never had Tony.  
  
It started to make Tony think. If it gave Peter even the slightest comfort, could it really be that bad, then?  
  
All of a sudden, Tony found himself grateful for it. Anything that Peter loved found itself in Tony’s good graces.

  
“Ever?” Peter asked, rousing him from his thoughts.

 Tony paused at that, wondering if he should make that promise. With his line of work, and the near-death experiences he has had already, did he have the right to make that promise?   
  
And then he looked at Peter’s face. Those wide eyes, his mop of curly brown hair.  
  
He would do anything for his kid.

 

“Never” Tony confirmed.


End file.
